Friday, February 16, 2007

Note: Starting February 6th, through the end of Spring Training, contributing authors will be posting biographies of the Top 100 Red Sox of all time at their own blogs and here at Top 100 Red Sox of all time

Further note - I wrote this just earlier this week before knowing Keith was about to retire and I am meant to post this on Sunday on the Top 100 blog but I had to pop this up here on my own blog tonight as a mark of respect to Foulke who retired today. Enjoy

In sporting commentary there is a popular cliche where the commentator says 'Fans of (team X) are very divided on (player X)'. When it comes to Red Sox fans and Keith Charles Foulke, the split isn't as much 50/50 for/against as it is 80/20 against/for.

Keith Foulke was a Boston player between 2004 and 2006, two years of much drama and controversy indeed. If he had left Boston in 2004 he would have left a hero. Instead, after two years battling knee, arm and back injuries along with a problematic personal life, Foulke left town for the Cleveland Indians with the majority of the Boston media and a sadly large proportion of Boston's fans only too happy to show him the way out.

Taking a step back, Foulke's legacy will always be the awesome 2004 campaign he turned in for the Red Sox. When the Sox attempts to run the closer position 'by committee' in 2003 failed miserably they set their minds to bring in a shut-down closer in the offseason. Foulke signed on from Oakland and promptly gave Boston fans exactly what they wanted, a dominant closer.

In 2004, his first year with the Red Sox, Keith saved 32 games in 39

opportunities while racking up 79 strikeouts and a regal 2.17 ERA across 83 innings. His numbers were fantastic but he was only getting started. In the 2004 postseason, Foulke appeared in 11 of 14 games turning his own gam

e up to another level, throwing 257 pitches over 14 innings. He clocked up 19 strikeouts in those 14 innings, and over the entire stretch, allow exactly one earned run on a completely meaningless solo shot long ball. At the time many in the media (who were about to drop verbal napalm all over him for the next two years) believed he should have been named the World Series MVP over Manny Ramirez.

I will never, ever forget the 2004 playoff run Keith Foulke had. From his uplifting strike out of Tony Clark with the Sox in big, big trouble against the Yankees, to his absolute abuse of a totally over matched Jim Edmonds and Scott Rolen in the World Series proper, Foulke had an entirely sensational 2004 playoffs.

On October 31, 2004 Jim McBride of the Boston Globe announced:

''It's unlikely Foulke, an avid hockey fan, will have to pick up a check in town for quite a while''

Just recently, Foulke filed for free agency and is no longer a Red Sox player. His manager had this to say as reported by Tony Massaroti of the Boston Herald;

'I don’t want to forget -- or have anybody else forget -- what he accomplished here,' Red Sox manager Terry Francona said late yesterday. 'It was phenomenal what he did here in 2004. I mean phenomenal. We don’t win anything without him.' "

Happy ending so, a player who should be forever remembered as a hero to the Red Sox 'nation', heads off into the sunset, his managers accolades ringing in our ears? Apparently not. As Foulke filed for free agency, Tony Massaroti actually said;

''Now Foulke is gone and here is the truly amazing thing: No one is shedding a tear. Not Foulke, not Epstein, not anyone who has watched the Red Sox over the past two seasons.''

He followed up that completely, self revealed erroneous statement (he had just reported that Francona was indeed very sad to see him go) with this sanctimonious rubbish:

''That might all be considered sad were it not for the simple fact that Foulke brought so much of this upon himself.''

If Massaroti had taken a step back and considered real life for a brief second he would have realised Foulke was hit by knee injuries, arm problems and a debilitating divorce in 2005. There is no doubt his acerbic personality didn't exactly demand that people support him, but there was no reason for the 'Shock and awe' campaign most of the New England media launched on him. He did not 'bring it on himself', if anything all that he proved was his inability to eloquently defend himself in the face of mounting criticism.

If only people would take Foulke's comments in perspective. From 2005 on he was wound up, frustrated and disappointed. He made some poorly thought out, throw away comments and probably instantly regretted them himself. The irony is most of them are actually reasonably amusing if you take a deep breath and avoid the 'cast the first stone' mentality.

Keith Foulke is a baseball player. He is not a journalist, a reporter or a politician. He does not have time to create measured, careful comments. He doesn't get to sit behind a keyboard and pick apart every single word that comes from someones mouth. Further still, he is not paid to be a spokesperson for anyone. Nowhere in his contract does it say that he should be an eloquent speaker on behalf of anyone. He is what he is, he is paid to throw the ball past Major League batters. End of story.

The slating he took, and still takes, for some acerbic, muddled and yes, regrettable comments, is completely out of order and uncalled for. It is shooting ducks in a barrel and the glee which people like Massoroti, Dan 'negativity' Shaughnessy and the unfailingly negative 'Boston Dirt Dogs' site ride the comments to personal gain is absolutely unnecessary. Further more, particularly on the parts of established journalists like Shaugnessy and Massaroti, it is shockingly lazy.

Why didn't those who were so quick to latch onto this totally inane and substance-light story give any air time to Foulke's explanation of the comment?

Given time to respond Keith Foulke said at the time;

“Yeah, I apologize to those people. You know what, the whole, like I said, the whole part. It was part of a joke and once again the media goes out there. They don’t print the first part of the joke where it puts people in the funny mood. It started off with ‘I’m not inviting him, I’m not inviting the people that are booing me, I’m not inviting them to my World Series party.’… That’s where the joke starts. And the last line is kind of a follow-up line. If you don’t hear the first part, yeah you may not understand the second part. You gotta take the whole thing and evaluate the whole sentence. Not just part of it.”

Clearly the whole story just isn't as dramatic when balanced out with either the entire quote, or Keith's explanation. So instead of actually giving us the whole story we were treated to part of it to validate certain journalists days work, to make them feel better about themselves and what they do.

Sadly I guess that's how it works. Foulke gets absolutely destroyed for a spoken, spur of the moment comment, while journalists can make thought-out comments that are the equal and if not worse of Foulke's and get away with it completely. They actually get paid for this Calvinistic, mid eighties 'woe is me' trash, and no one takes them to task over their often lazy, irresponsible and self serving writing. The amazing propensity for Boston scribes to find ways to attack Foulke is mind boggling. Take Massaroti's feeble summing up of the personality of Keith Foulke

'' Off the field, for whatever reason, Foulke seemed perpetually grumpy and displeased.''

Right, so, I guess everybody has to smile for the camera, Tony? Massaroti admits in his column; ''Foulke battled injuries to his knees, back and arm'' and it is common knowledge that Foulke went through a very bitter divorce proceeding in 2005. However, I guess he should dance around happily like Homer does for Marge, singing;

''Look at me! I'm making people happy! I'm the magical man from Happy Land in a gumdrop house on Lollipop Lane!''

Maybe if Keith had adopted that false strategy everything would have worked out fine, and the media would have left him alone to deal with his personal issues and injuries and would have dealt with him for what he is, a baseball player.

A pitcher that was one of the main reasons the Boston Red Sox won the World Series in 2004.

Sadly, it appears we live in a world where journalists like Massaroti ascribe to another Homer Simpson quote;

''“Sometimes the only way you can feel good about yourself is by making someone else look bad.''

There is a scene in 'The Departed' where Matt Damon and a few other State Troopers sit in an office with this below exact picture clearly in the background. That's Keith Foulke, celebrating making the last out of the 2004 World Series.

With Foulke, 'It is what it is', he is a baseball player and if you are a Red Sox fan he delivered, on a plate, your wildest dreams. Take it all for what it is, let those who need sensationalist, false and doctored stories to further their careers do so on their own.

3 comments:

So...the reason I'm not a big fan of Foulke is just because after he won the World Series...he just appeared to..um...give up. I'm not one to minimize his ability and his importance to the World Series but as a fan of the Sox win or lose...I am one to criticize someone whose love of the game died with the championship. :) Do you think I'm way off?

Foulke was not only hit with several injuries in 2005 and 2006, he also went through a painful divorce. Added to that, the local media chose him as their whipping boy and often used him as a reason as to why Boston failed to win in '05 and '06.

However, the Boston Globe went with an article over the weekend where Josh Beckett said he was one of the few who knew how badly Foulke was hurting physically.

So, in my view, no, Foulke didn't give up as much as Boston's media and fans gave up on him.

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The author

Pitcher on the the 3 time Irish League Champion 'Dublin Hurricanes'. Irish National Baseball team veteran. Four time 'Tommy Bond' (the Irish Cy Young award) winner.
Avid Red Sox fan. Was in the stands @ Yankee stadium for Pedro's 17k night.
That is all.